NCAA Football ’09: Manual Recruiting in Dynasty Mode
Hey sports nerds. I have gone through a couple of years in my dynasty with The Ohio State Buckeyes and I think I have a grasp on the new recruiting in EA Sports’ best effort to date. Recruiting is overly comprehensive and unless you want the computer AI to do everything for you, you should keep reading. By the way if you let the computer recruit for you it also means you will not get the best class possible. Note: This is a “strategery” that will work for a powerhouse, since I have time for one dynasty at this point. My examples will be based off of being tOSU out of Columbus, OHIO.
Setting up your success in the preseason:
In your preseason you have many tasks before week 1 of the college football season. One of them is filling your recruiting board (up to 35 slots) with players that you will want to recruit this year. Your team will have a few positions listed as immediate needs so make sure you get someone good (or someone) because placing a walk-on high in the depth chart is a recipe for failure.
Find guys who are already highly interested in you. Keep out the guys who maybe a blue chipper but do not even list you in their top ten and already have high interest in another BCS school. I only do that if I need an immediate starter at kicker or punter and he needs to be a bad ass to compete next year.
Also, don’t worry about being perfect with your recruiting board in the preseason, because at any point in the season you can remove prospects and add other high school players. This is beneficial when a player commits to another school, or you can see the inevitable when, for example, that one blue chip defensive end from California won’t budge on his top three and you cannot crack it. Just let them have him, you can’t win them all.
Other preseason jobs will be to redshirt players on your depth chart and setting up your schedule. Schedule as many home games as possible. It will help in the long run when setting up campus visits with those high school seniors. Also be careful not to redshirt a lot of true freshmen already on your roster because that will discourage a high senior in the recruiting process if early playing time is important to them. Offensive and defensive backs and receivers seem to be the positions where playing time is important.
Executing in the Regular Season: Each week before you play your game you will have to go through recruiting via telephone. Again make sure your computer help settings are turned off, as this is a manual recruiting guide. You get 10 phone call hours per week. The columns next to your players provide information like your position and interest level on the player’s list of schools, how many schools his list is down to, gain/decline in his interest in your school, ready or scheduled campus visit, and how many schools have offered this player a scholarship and if you have or not. If a player shows a lot of interest in you early on and resides in one of your “pipeline” states (Ohio State: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida) it is a good idea to offer a scholarship right away. Or if this player is an immediate need on your next year roster.
You have 25 scholarships open to offer per season but try to get them early. Unlike past seasons of NCAA Football, it will always be 25 since you cannot get hammered by the NCAA for violations and behavioral problems.
The options in calling a recruit is a quick call or call recruit manually. These are like sales calls. Quick call provides the option to call for 5 to 60 minutes and offer a scholarship, if you have not already. The computer will then get info during the duration you call, including their priorities or if any interest was gained on a sway pitch. The goal of calling manually should be to find out what the player prioritizes from “Most” to “Very High”. If you see a pad lock icon next to that subject do not waste time trying to “sway” that player with your pitch. Watch the icon of the face on the football because its reaction is what you want to base your pitches off of. If you talk too long or about a subject they don’t care about or a subject your school has a bad rep for, then they will get mad and hang up the phone. In turn, you will probably see your school drop on his leader board the following week. Keep that football face smiling! You do that keeping it short and sweet, and by pitching about a subject that is of Most or Very High importance to the prospect.
If it is the first time you’ve called a recruit you must find the importance of a pitch to the player so quickly go to a subject your school is strong in. QBs and offensive lineman seem to enjoy a school that is a pro factory and have high coach prestige. Once you find out the prospect’s three Most, Very High and High importance categories, schedule a visit and try to get them early. Set up the player’s three activities based on their priorities and your reputation. If your school is Elite or Excellent in the category (and you beat the shit out of the team you play that week), you have a really good shot of landing that prospect.
After the visit the prospect will grade A through F how their visit went based on everything above. If you grade A with the prospect and were already #1 on their list it will probably turn into a hard or soft commitment to your school. This will free up phone call minutes in the following weeks for players who have not made a commitment yet.
Experience Notes:
1. Don’t forget to look at the other teams in the prospect’s top 5. This is an indication what the player places as important to his decision on a school so you don’t have to waste time finding the most important pitch. Example: If you are recruiting a kid from Ohio but his top schools are Florida, LSU, and USC, then obviously proximity to home is not important to him. He may just be looking to leave his home state for school and you might want to take him off your list. Another example: If the kid has the likes of you (Ohio State), Miami OH, Akron, and Ball State but is looking for a school with conference prestige and a shot at a national title, you better hammer that home with your pitches. It works both ways.
2. Don’t ever expect more than ten hard commits to your team during the regular season. Also, don’t get scared if you only have 4 or 5. You probably have several soft commitments at that point. “Those are I.O.U.’s sir…just as good as money.” Dumb and Dumber
3. I have not found a way to steal a soft commit from another school, but it is supposed to be possible. But I have noticed late in the season that if you need to fill spots on your depth chart and keep losing players on your prospect board to other teams, go out and get someone. Try searching for a player (not blue chip) with no offers from one of your pipeline states and just offer them a scholarship with additional talk minutes. Sometimes they hard commit to your school that day. I’ve gotten at least 6 players to commit that way. Better than chasing all the 5 star guys and ending up with a walk-on on signing day. In same way I like to play football with no turnovers, I like to recruit with no walk-ons because they will never improve and always be dead depth chart weight.
4. Scheduling Visits. It seems you should schedule your prospects based on availability, your ability to play a good game against a top team, and of course win it. For example I had a couple prospects visiting a game against USC and won 17-14 in a great game. But those players graded their visit as a B just because we only won by three. Shooting for A’s and A pluses is the goal and it didn’t work there.
The Offseason:
After your bowl game, there are offseason recruiting jobs before national signing day arrives. This will be in-home visits you make to the non committed players on your prospect board. This is new and easy especially if you used your phone call minutes well during the season. Players who have you 1st on their list don’t need to hear much before they sign with you. The in-home visit will have subjects you can promise to the prospect that will happen in their first year on campus. As you get deeper into your dynasty (and you have fulfilled your promises) your integrity will go up and unlock other crazy things to promise on in-home visits. You can promise up to three things but make sure you can keep all of them. With Ohio State, “winning record versus rivals (Illinois, Penn State, Michigan)” and “winning conference championship first year on campus” are pretty safe promises. Look at the depth chart and see if you can guarantee the prospect will NOT redshirt their first year on campus. You can guarantee a national championship and a starting position and a spot on the freshman All-American team and more, but not until your integrity rises after a few promise fulfilled years at head coach.
Move on to signing day and see what you got. You can see how well you did nationally and with-in your conference. Keep in mind I have probably gotten 23 players each year as it is not imperative to use all 25 scholarships. They don’t roll over to your next recruiting season, but as long as you have a top ten class and your position needs are filled, these guys will give your program some pretty awesome years to come. Championships. With or without a Tyrelle Pryor.
Tags: EA Sports, NCAA Football '09, Recruiting, Video Games
Very good article. In my first dynasty season with Illinois i actually managed to sway a WR who was a soft verbal somewhere else to me. All i did was quick call him for a hour and two large interest gains showed and he ended up and Illini.
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wolfee Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Main article:
This article is more the ‘basics’ of manual recruiting. Starting a dynasty as Ohio State has a difficulty of ‘0′. I love this game just for the recruiting aspect alone and rarely actually ‘play game’ unless ’sim game’ fails and I really want the win. I’ve taken Army, Buffalo, Vanderbilt, Wyoming and Idaho to National Championships in ‘Ncaa 08′ and so far in NCAA 09 I’ve taken Maryland and Western Kentucky. Maryland was the only 3* team, all others were 1* or maybe a 2*. So here’s how to recruit if you actually HAVE to recruit.
1. Check your team needs. If you’re Western Kentucky, you pretty much need a new team entirely but you have to keep it relative and look for really poor positions. “My School” will tell you your needs as will pressing “Y” in Xbox 360.
2. Filling up your recruiting board (Russel top 100). Go to the Russel Top 100 list, highlight the INTEREST column and sort on INTEREST. (’X’ on xbox 360) Add the top five players (remember we’re Western Kentucky, rating of 60) in INTEREST. Now just for kicks, scroll through all 100 names and see if anyone has a green dot next to their name, meaning you’re in their top 10. Add them if there are any.
3. Filling up your recruiting board (Player Search): Ok you’ve added 5-10 players from the Russel top 100, so now you need to get 25-30 more. Go to ‘Player Search’ and set the interest level to ‘top 10′, nothing else. You will see a number of players but most will be rank1 and 2. Check if there are any 4*’s and add them. Now check how many 3*’s there are and add them as well. Hopefully you can pick and choose at this point based on your needs but if not, get 4*’s and 3*’s.
4. Final recruits: Use player search to find what you’re in desperate need of and sort (’x') on Interest. Now your preseason recruits are picked and your board of 35 is full.
5. Weeks #1-2: You can do it two ways IMO. Sort on ‘caliber’ and select ‘quickcall’. Offer a scholarship and 5-10 minutes of talk to every player starting with the top caliber. You will get through 20+ players depending on how much talk you added to each call. The second week, you finish the rest and ‘quickcall’ talk to the players the first week that showed an increase in INTEREST. (green up-arrow). The second approach is to quickcall everyone the first week. If you get green up-arrows from a player starting the second week of recruiting, that’s a keeper and you want to work that player.
6. Weeks #3 and on: You want to get at least 2, ideally 3+ categories where their interest is HIGH or more and you want to pound those points into their heads. Completing a Pitch is the key but you have to play the waiting game. How long do you wait for the pitch to complete? Well you gotta get one! If it took a few seconds to get that first one, quickly try a second but be ready to cancel out if he just sits there. Try to end a call with him smiling.
7. Scheduling visits: If you’re a powerhouse, go ahead and schedule early, they probably want to go there anyway. If you aren’t, then schedule your 2* and 3* players early to get a headstart against equally rated competitors but try to schedule your 4* and 5* visits later in the season. You are going to need every single week to try and build up enough interest to convince him to commit to your school. Yes you CAN steal a Soft Commit if your close in interest and still have a scheduled visit coming.
Tips:
1. Cut bait: Although that 5* Guard is really what you want, you’re not on his top 10 list even though you’ve been pounding 2+ Pitches per week on the guy and he’s even smiling! Cut bait, remove him, and add a player that may show some interest in your school.
2. If your team is rated in the 60’s to start, you might do well to recruit a ton of ATH’s, they usually don’t get as much attention early on and you might be able to grab a couple quality players.
3. Just for kicks, always do a search based on interest and “Top school”, “Top 3″, “Top 5″. You might be able to get a few 3* right away to get things kicked off on the right foot.
4. Promises: For a low rated school, beating your rivals is probably the safest bet, then no redshirt as long as you know he’s going to play. I have been using ‘beat rivals’ and ‘natinoal exposure’ because Western Kentucky is an Independent and I can pick games I know will be televised.
Things that tick me off:
1. I’ve won 33 games in a row at Western Kentucky and the last two seasons I’ve scheduled a nationally ranked team each week but one (none were available) and that team was Notre Dame. I would be ranked 5th, beat a ranked team and my ranking would drop to 9th!!
2. You’re way ahead in recruiting a player and he’s actually “Soft commit”, then along comes Michigan, USC, etc. and have their visit week 13 or 14 and the next thing I know the player is gone. Argh!!
Hope this helps those of you out there taking on the challenge of a 60-rating team.
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bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:00 am
awesome post! like u said, anyone can pickup the game and win/recruit w/ sc, ut, osu etc… but whats really fun is bulding up a lowly ranked school into a powerhouse
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Juggy Reply:
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 am
@Illinifan91,
i think this is the most watered down explanation. something that was read from the manual to ncaa. what people want is to know tricks to getting them. and by the way, its not hard recruiting at osu. try tcu! the whole dont go for people that arent interested is stupid because ive had uninterested people commit in as little as three weeks. you just have to find the highs and mosts without unlocking the lows. and talking to them for 5 minutes wont cut it. u can spend hours on one player if u want as long as u talk about different stuff. and when u see a prospect with a average or above average or high without a lock beside it try to sway the pitch and it could really pay off. dont sway too long or they will get pissed. right now im undefeated with michigan state on heisman difficulty and i have some other users in that online dynasty. dont listen to this scrub! GO SPARTANS!
gamertag is : king40jugg
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Michael Reply:
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
@Illinifan91, If you want to steal a soft commit and have a escessive about of time hammer his highest needs of put an hour amount of quick call on him than next week hell either have you higher or will go back to normal just in time for u to sway him your way.
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Nice post KVB…I need to get this game. I’m just glad they put McFadden on it and not Tim Tebow.
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Eric Horner Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
@Jerod Morris, u retard… they only put players going pro on it. whe tebow graduates he will most certainly be on it. he’ll have least 2 heismans under his belt. tebows a champ.
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JRod Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
@Eric Horner,
Thanks for the comment Eric. But you may want to proofread before calling someone else a retard, just for the sake of your own credibility.
I’m aware of how the NCAA football games choose the players for the cover. As KVB knows, I am an unfortunate fan of the Tennessee Volunteers, and thus despise Tim Tebow and his jump passes and Heisman Trophy. This was merely my attempt to get a dig in on Tebow.
We’ll see about two Heismans. If he has a stellar game against Alabama, he just may get two. The Big 12 QBs may end up canceling eachother out with the regional vote.
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Eric Horner Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
@JRod, ok
sorry for the retard comment
was rude
and
sorry for you having to be a tennessee fan
lol
gators will win it all and so will tim
bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:04 am
@JRod, awesome reply, only thing is, idiots are rarely realize when they should be offended, btw that jump pass comment almost ruined my keyboard lol if u know what i mean
Madden over NCAA for me, at least until I go to college and get a team. Growing up a Jayhawk fan I never really got into college football, despite our domination last year.
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Until last season I wasn’t even aware that the Jayhawks had a football team.
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Mark Mangino is awesome.
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I expected a bunch of “You are a massive tool” comments…so thanks. Also, I am glad to hear the experience of stealing the dickjauron commit from another school. I would ALWAYS try this against a rival or conference school. Otherwise let them have them.
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KVB-
You are a massive tool.
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KVB, you have officially set a Midwest Sports Fans record for # of diggs on a post. You’re at 5 so far. Maybe you aren’t such a massive tool.
Unlike this guy
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I haven’t played an NCAA game with this style of recruiting before, and I’m having difficulty getting players to sign with me. Do you get more interest gain if you spend more time on a recruit? I’ve been trying to spread my 10 hours to 15-20 of my targeted recruits each week and making sure they’re as happy with me as possible, but now I’m thinking this is the wrong way to go about recruiting players. As usual, the in-game information is nearly worthless and only gives a general overview. Will spending more minutes talking with a recruit give me a bigger interest gain? Does hard selling the same pitch still give an interest gain or should I switch to a different pitch? Will interrupting my pitch before it’s complete still gain me interest with the recruit? Thanks.
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Red_n_gold, simply put the more minutes put in the more interest gain especially on quick calls. If you put more than 90 minutes in your manual pitch calls though, you will just upset the player equaling no interest gain. To better answer your question I would like to know which team you are using but anyway….
According to the football avatar’s face, keep it smiling. That includes hard selling the same topic each week that your school is elite or excellent at and the recruit has a most or very high importance level. Completing the pitch is required as you do not want to stop talking unless the football avatar is losing his smile and patience with the time you are putting in. Not completing the pitch results in no interest gain.
This may sound too time consuming since playing the actual games are the best part, but log which players you did not have enough time put phone call minutes into each week. Make sure you call that recruit the following week. Try not to leave any players uncalled though. Even if you save 10 minutes in quick calls per your last 10 recruits on the board it is better than nothing. It also only uses 100 minutes (1 hour 40 min) of your 10 hour week allowance.
Get your campus visits in as early as possible. I lost 6 prospects because they were apparently too bored to wait for my last game (Michigan) and committed elsewhere before even visiting me during the greatest rivalry in all of sports. I’m obviously still bitter and hope those kids get buried on the depth chart of their stupid team choices.
Remember, know your competition. Example, if you keep hard selling “fan base” to a player and you are behind against the likes of Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State it is time to do a different pitch because they have just as good a fan base as you, if not better.
Hope this helps. Keep the questions coming people.
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One more thing, I am never done with the “find pitch” option until I have found the player’s “Most” important pitch. “Very High” and “High” are nice but I want to know what is Most important. Once you find that hammer home the hard sells on the subject. Unless of course campus lifestyle is most important to this prospect and you are a boring school in West Lafayette, IN.
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Thanks, KVB. I’m playing the Iowa State Cyclones.
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Cyclones alright….well see ya later!
What are your pipeline states?
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My pipeline states are Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Kansas and/or Missouri might be pipeline states also, but I don’t remember for certain at the moment.
Do you know how much playing time a player has to receive to complete the playing time promise? I promised playing time to a HB and G. They didn’t start for me, but I subbed them in at halftime. At the end of the year it said I had failed to keep my promise to those players. I’m only playing 5 minute quarters, so I’m guessing that’s hurting me here.
I also failed to keep some of my no redshirt promises because the AI redshirted some players without me catching it.
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Finally. I am Baylor, 12-0 going to the conference championship. I have only 1 hard commit, 0 soft commits. But now I know what I was doing wrong. My biggest problem was not setting up my prospect board the way I wanted until Week 6 or so.
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Glad this post helped Desk Coder. Are you from Texas? I can’t imagine why anyone would be Baylor in a video game otherwise. (This also gave me a good opportunity to give a little dig to my co-worker, who is a Baylor alum.)
I checked out the blog…why so few posts? If you’re behind the desk 9 to 5 it seems like you should have more time to post. Keep us updated on how the season with Baylor goes. I think the game may self-destruct if you actually win a national title with them. Now sure the programmers could plan for that absurd potential event.
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I picked Baylor because I wanted a crappy team in an awesome conference. It was either them or Vanderbilt, but I went with Baylor because they had a fast FR QB, and a semi-fast RB.
I did OK in recruiting, got 2 97 speed RBs. Run the option, and once they get outside, GONE! A little too easy on original difficulty. I will bump after this season. I already have a 4-star OLB signed during my 2nd season, after week 5. It is fun recruiting, now that I know what I am doing.
Blog is empty because I am in the process of making that my business blog, and making a new blog for personal stuff. I just need to find the time, which have none of because of my PS3.
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“I just need to find the time, which have none of because of my PS3″
I think pretty much every male between the ages of 17-35 can relate to that!
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Glad the post helped!
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Glad the post helped! Recruiting on the game is fun!
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Yeah, of course it’s fun for you, you Buckeye loving, pumpkin-pie haircutted freak. When you have an unlimited supply of $100-handshakes to entice players to come to Columbus, how could it not be fun?
Win a big game for once though. Tomczak4eva!
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Nice post, just found it on Google. I have a couple questions though. How come I can only get maybe 1 or 2 to commit by the end of the season with these rules? It seems no matter how well I hit their pitches or win during that week, I can’t seem to get an “A” visit. I am using tOSU and I have about 25 or so in the top 4 by the end of the season, only to see them commit a week after their visit to a team lower than mine.
Is it just luck? Or are there other factors during visits than just hitting the pitches and winning big?
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I know one person who swears by the idea that you try to get your visits to happen during rivalry games. Never will you have Illinois, Penn State and Michigan all at home in the same year so you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.
The only other X-factors that I can guess would be a problem on grades would be, not assigning the best activities during their visit. tOSU is pretty excellent in all aspects of pitches so just make sure the weekend activities that you set up (3 max.) are the prospect’s Most, Very High and Very High importance level.
If you happen to not know their most important pitches just go with the 2 highest activities, you don’t always have to have 3. Or reschedule the visit for later date until you know their most important pitches.
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Maybe recruits aren’t joining you in Columbus because of your incessant and completely pretentious use of the “t” before OSU. (KVB…I blame you).
If you really were “The” Ohio State University, you wouldn’t have to tell everybody and try to compensate for your big game meltdowns against teams who have players with sub 4.6 times in the 40.
Try reducing the pretentiousness and work on winning a big game. Then maybe you’ll have better luck with recruits.
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great post, and it is tOSU
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Ugh, there’s a whole army of you pretentious little Buckeyes bastards running around (slowly, of course) this site.
I knew I never should have let KVB join…
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I like to use two E’s. As in:
Thee, Ohio State University
Go Bucks!
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I like to use two E’s as well — as in douchee bag.
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The two E’s also remind me of your favorite college football team Tennessee. They haven’t looked so hot, so quit the Buckeye hating. The SEC speed thing definitely doesn’t apply to your school anymore. Keep fumbleeing away your opportunities this year UT.
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It is not possible for me to even attempt a comeback. I’ve been waiting for that. Touche KVB. Touche.
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Now, how do I keep my prospects? 3 of my freshman recruits want to transfer, and all of them played EVERY game last year. I won’t mind but they are my starters in positions I don’t have backups for … TE, LG, and DT.
Plus, 2 of my corners want to declare for the draft. Should I just let them go to build my pro factory?
How do I keep the froshlings from transferring?
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Well, I kept two of my people from transferring, the TE left. This was only after resetting the game and trying again. I let my two corners go, which in hindsight was a stupid move. My corners this year suck.
And I kept 22 of 23 promises, but my coaching prestige is only Good, not Excellent. I promised every recruit this year a national championship …
Anyone have any tips to improve your school’s categories, like Campus Lifestyle. I am only Fair in that. And my Championship Contender is not Excellent, considering I have won back to back national titles.
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Who is your team? I can only assume these are the first two titles your school has ever gotten, if that is the case Championship Contender is Excellent at a traditional school. Note you will always have an up hill battle in recruiting when using a mid-level or non-BCS school.
I didn’t notice your initial post until this morning. My advice would have been to convince at least one of your corners from going pro. Pro Factory will be helped either way since it is obvious they would be drafted as seniors as well. Having to start crappy corner backs never has any merit.
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I think from his earlier post that he chose Baylor.
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I’m sorry, but I disagree with one major thing.
You can easily get more than 10 recruits in a year. My brothers and some of my friends and I have an online dynasty in the SEC. My brother in week 8 had 15 recruits 6 were 5 star 8 were 4 star and 1 was 3. I am Tennessee and had 12 recruits with 4 5 stars and 4 4 stars and 4 3 stars. My brother and his friend were Florida and Bama, and they both had at least 8 each.
I have come to see that there should be a common way we each recruit. I offer everyone the first week, and I barely go over 20 people on my board right away. Reason being is the more people, the less likely you will get everyone. Also, if you are out of the top 5 you really shouldn’t even try. Unless they are amazing, or have a 4.2 40 or under. Also the star rating doesn’t mean a lot, many times I have a 3 star be better overall then a 4 star. Focusing on speed is also a good idea, speed kills.
Next you schedule each prospect right away. The quicker you schedule, the more likely for them to come on a sure win. Don’t have them visit before week 3, usually around the week 5-9 area is the best.
Some suggestions, try them out.
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Thanks for the comment Tim. Very good insight and you are right. I will say since I wrote this in August I have had several regular seasons in which I had 10-15 hard commits. It is of course possible but don’t get discouraged if you are playing and can’t get the high number of regular season commits. Overall class is what matters.
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Great site man! i play with Michigan St. mostly and it is very hard to get the top self recruits to come. i usually go through in preseason and target mostly top five interests. i start in MI, and work my way out to OH, WI, pipeline states, etc…
One thing that i found works pretty good toward the end of your season is to use the prospect search to filter recruits that still have a list of schools in the top 8. If you are in need of some players that you lost out on to other schools towards the final weeks, you can usually find some 4 star players that have not even been offered yet by anyone. even if they are not listing you in their top 10, if you recruit these guys heavy in the final weeks, you will shoot right up their list in a hurry since they have no offers yet. I have gotten many 4 star players that way.
Also, the recruits that you really should take a longshot stab at that dont have you in their top 10 are the players that have your rivals in their top 10. a player from CA that has a top 3 of USC, UCLA, Oregon, are usally outta reach for a team like Mich St. but if they also have a Michigan or Wisc. on thier list somewhere, you should defineatly take a shot at them, as long as they still have at least 8 schools remaining on their list. 3 or 5 schools remaining on their list is not worth a risk.
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KVB Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:40 am
@sparfanrule, good advice spartanfan
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I am using Arkansas State because I like to take a horrible team through a bunch of years and turn them into a great team…anyway, after last year, I got an offer to switch conferences from Sun-Belt to WAC…is this something that happens often if you play well (or I guess poorly) enough? It’d be sweet to get into a competitive conference like the SEC.
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KVB Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am
@adam_2323, it looks like you can according to the comment from “WOZ” below, as he took Middle Tenn State to a four star program and into the SEC. That is a very cool aspect of the game. Though to be more realistic I think they should make recruiting a little harder as you make your dynasty settings harder from frosh to Heisman settings.
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great tips i just found this using google. I’m using the University of Kentucky and I’m in my 2nd year and after getting mainly 3star recruits it looks like I will be getting the best recruit in the nation and mostly 4 star lineman which I need really bad, because my starters are leaving. This is off-topic but most of my games are time-consuming drives where everybody was saying that there would be alot of quick drives and a lot of passing yards which is the opposite for me even though i throw 30 passes a game
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Great article! I have a question that I need further clarification on. I am playing with Middle Tennessee State, and after 4 years I’m a 4 Star Program playing in the SEC. For the majority of my top recruits, I have their key interests unlocked. Am I better off hard selling 2 or 3 interests in one phone call (i.e Most, Very High, Very High), or just sticking to 1 per phone call (MOST)? I do not want to waste valuable minutes on 1 recruit if the same effect can be gained by hard selling the “most” important interest. Thanks.
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Hey KVB your article as help me some,i am trying something new years in my recruiting,i use to schedule people when they were ready to come see me week 2 or 3 real early but now i think i wanna try for anywhere from week 8-12 not too early or too late,do you think this matters at all??? i think had them coming to see me to early and it hurt me but not sure
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KVB Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:25 am
@SoonerFan, I have had a few isolated instances where the early visit recruits loved me and had me #1 or #2 all year after an A grade. And then at years end they ended up committing elsewhere after visiting another school late. It could be I became complacent in giving them phone call minutes after they visited and gave me an A grade.
So long story short I think week 6 through 13 is a good idea. Just in case you get ready to schedule a guy late and he has commits to visit every week you have a home game.
Keep this in mind with your schedule too. Have your bye’s early in the year and make sure you get those home games scheduled middle to late.
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also something else for people wanting an edge when you get the chance to create a player you can make a kicker or punter as many as you want and make them from your teams home town and state and then everything 99 overall but there kicking power and acc 0 and in recruiting they are a 1 star worst player there is,but when you get to postion changes you can switch them where ever you need and they will be a 99 you dont always get but it helps
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KVB Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
@SoonerFan, this is interesting to me considering i am in a dynasty year where I have a senior kicker and NO ONE recruit (even after some visits) wants to commit or even put me in their top 3 and I am sitting on week 13 after my Michigan game. You would think one of these guys would want to start for Ohio State as a true freshman instead waiting on the depth chart for Cincinnati.
If this happens to anyone else make sure you have a good punter that can pull double duty because that is better than a walk on and chances are you can get a bad ass kicker the following year.
Or make things easier do what Sooner said, create a one star ATH from your home state, get him, and position change him to a kicker.
Anyway, I love the holidays. A great time to be a dork and catch up on my dynasties. I feel like a fatass from the South Park Warcraft episode.
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thanks for the reply’s KVB one more ? though you keep saying something about a grade A on a recruits visit to your school,how can you tell what they graded there visit???i looked and cant find it anywhere
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KVB Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
@SoonerFan, On your prospect recruiting board the 2nd to last column is Visit. It says “ready” when they are open to scheduling a visit etc. Once schedule this column will read for ex. “Week 10″ so once that week has passed in parenthesis same column it will say for ex. “Week 10 (A+)”.
That grade is the indicator of how well the visit went at your school during that week.
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I developed a masterful recruiting technique for in season recruiting…just pick 15 top guys that have interest in you, 40 minutes quick call every week, when they are ready for a visit schedual it around weeks 8,9,10 by then the “Most” and two “Very High” interests on your recruits obviously picks those for his visit, and yes make sure your STOMP the team you play that week, I average 12-15 during the season, and the off season recruiting is easy im in year 2025 of my dynasty and have had a top 5 recruiting class since the third year probably.
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cody wolf Reply:
January 26th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
@Webbie, im in year 2027 i feel weird because im so far into it but now i no im not alone
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yall seriously left this many comment post on something like this. how about read the article, take the article in; go use the info learned from it and dont type anything back.
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Does anyone have any info on recruiting for the Wii All Play version of NCAA Football 09?
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hey dude thanks 4 the recruiting advice but i cant find a team 2 use in the game. i dont like using teams like georgia, florida, oklahoma, ohio state because they are the cream of the crop in the beginning of the game and i almost automatically win the national title if i am one of those teams. but i dont want to be a mid major school because i never get a good bowl. so i want 2 be a team with between the rankings of 10-50. got any suggestions?
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KVB Reply:
January 5th, 2009 at 11:53 am
@greg,
I will give you a suggestion for each conference.
BIG10: Illinois, Great QB and WR. Play the top guys at Ohio State and Penn State most years.
BIG East: Rutgers, In the BIG EAST so winning the conference will be easier. Schedule tougher non-conference foes.
SEC: South Carolina, now this is one hell of a challenge in the SEC.
PAC10: Oregon. Cool stadium and uniforms and atmosphere.
ACC: Miami, I really like Miami.
Big12: Ok State. Agreed with Brandon below.
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Try Oklahoma State your conference is amazing so are your facilities. Recruiting is fun not to mention you have a great team if you like the spread offense.
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Thanks 4 the help. I tryed Michigan State, but their QB, Brian Hoyer, wasnt working 4 me and i was only getting about 75-80 yards a game with Javon Ringer. I like Okalahoma State, they are a good team overall and i also like Miami, but they have a FR QB. And SC is a really good team and it will be fun to try 2 climb to the top of the SEC. Thanks 4 the help and i will let you know who i decide to play with soon.
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cody wolf Reply:
January 26th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
@greg, USE NUMBER 17 AT STATE HES AWESOME
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THE POSSIBILITY OF 10 PROSPECTS WITH A HARD COMMIT DURING THE SEASON IS VERY PROBABLE(EVEN HAVING 10 5 STAR PROSPECTS IS VERY POSSIBLE). THE ONLY REASON I SAY THIS IS BECAUSE I DO IT EVERY YEAR. THE IDEA BEHIND IT IS TO NOT FILL YOUR DRAFT BOARD WITH ALL 35 PROSPECTS, THE REASON BEHIND THIS IS BECAUSE WHEN YOU RECRUIT MULTIPLE PLAYERS (4 OR 5)AT THE SAME POSITION IT MAKES IT HARDER TO GET THEM TO COMMIT BECAUSE THEY KNOW YOU’RE RECRUITING MORE PLAYERS AT THAT POSITION THAN JUST THEM. I LIKE TO PUT ABOUT 16 PLAYERS ON MY BOARD, MY LAST SEASON I DID 14 BECAUSE I DIDNT HAVE A NEED FOR ANYMORE THAN THAT AND THE SMALLER NUMBER ON YOUR BOARD THE BETTER CHANCE FOR GETTING ALL OF THEM. I NEVER DO MORE THAN 18 OR 19 PLAYERS THOUGH. MY BEST RECRUITING CLASS CONSISTED OF STARTING AFTER 16 5 STARS, I GOT ALL BUT ONE AND ENDED UP WITH 23 TOTAL INCLUDING 5 4 STARS, AND A 3 STAR KICKER.
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bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:14 am
@DAVID, wow that was some really good advice!
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Sooner4me Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 am
@DAVID, actually I have had 14 5 star recruits b4.. as well as 2 4 stars and a 2 star kicker… it can happen I was a 4 year back to back nat’l champion and had kept every single promise for 3 years straight.
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Is there any way to improve all of your recruiting pitches. I enjoy playing with my favorite team, Notre Dame, but after a few seasons it is far too easy. I am currently starting a dynasty with Buffalo, but it is so hard to recruit because the pitches are all really bad. Any suggestions?
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I have been playing Texas so it is pretty easy to recruit. But, it is hard find a good center. So I had to move a tackle to center.
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bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:12 am
@Shane, dude i have had the same problem with UT. centers and fullbacks lol
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I played as NIU and won bowl games 2 years in a row making them a 4 star prestige school but its still sooo hard to recruit.. my team is complete garbage now… lol.. sucks cuz i love NIU but they’re rated so bad in everything… hopefully since they went to a bowl game this year they’ll be at least 3 stars next year.. (sucks because if i remember in ncaa 08 they where a 3 star lol)
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Consider the following scenario:
Let’s say a prospect is interested in two pitches that your school is strong in, Pitch A and Pitch B. Let’s say you are rated Very Good for Pitch A and Good for Pitch B. Now, let’s say the prospect has High interest in Pitch A and Very High interest in Pitch B. So basically:
Pitch Rating Interest
A Very Good High
B Good Very High
Is it better to pitch him more on Pitch A, because your school is stronger in that category, or better to pitch him on Pitch B, because that is what he is more interested in?
What do you guys think?
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im in my 20th season on the dynasty and im starting to wonder how many years do i have left? can anyone help me?
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bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:09 am
@cody wolf, dude ur actually on ur 20th season of ncaa 09? no way. do u work or go to school? are u a husband and or a father? how can u possibly have had the time for 20 seasons?
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well i brought western kentucky into the sec, and number 1 ranking by year 2012….without cheating…
that is amazing
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You guys should try recruiting with Army. What a b*tch…
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bigmikem90 Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 5:11 am
@Sean, i bet it makes it hella interesting! if u can recruit for the black knights, u can recruit anywhere else in real life lol..
go army, beat navy!
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another good tip is to get a school that is academically good… i used BYU and a lot of 5* players were very interested in education and i used other schools with good education and it helped a bunch… the main thing is that education you cannot really increase no matter how much you win so if you start at a school with good education then thats one last thing that youll have to compensate for in recruiting
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After doing a lot of research online about how to recruit.. I’ve come across a ton of success recently. I used USC which is Elite in nearly everything and after 4 consecutive seasons of being undefeated and winning 4 National Titles, it seemed like every recruit wanted a piece of me. I basically had about 50 3-5 star prospects put me as their number one with nearly or more than half their interest bar filled. Basically, after 4 seasons of moderate recruiting, pulling in 7-9 5 Stars, I really got it going.. here’s what I did beginning with the 5th season on..
1. Target all the players you want, no more than 20. Filling your list up with more or even 35 is more work than you need and you’ll never be able to split the time evenly so that you hit all the recruits.. so don’t bother.
2. Quickcall each of them for 20-40 minutes for the first 3-5 weeks so you can find all their pitches, rather than manually trying to do it and wasting a ton of minutes.
3. Schedule your visits midseason and no later than week 12, unless you have to. I like to do this because by mid season I have nearly filled up the interest meter for the players I wanted.. the visits should always be used finalize the recruitment.
4. Manually play the games where multiple recruits are visiting and make sure to really blow out your opponent. Simulating these games is usually wishwashy and even if you simulate a win, nothing less than a solid A rating from recruits will do. I got 5 5-Stars during week 8 by blowing out my opponent.
5. After the visits, your targets should either have you as first or be a soft verbal.. continuously bombard your targets by selling only very high and MOST picthes..by now it should be smooth sailing.. granted no other power houses schedule visits late in the season. For me, even when teams did.. it really didn’t matter because I was already so far ahead of them on any given player’s interest meter, it didn’t even affect me getting his signature.
Note: All of the above are ignoring the obvious. You need to win all your games handily and you need to call your recruits every week and hit all the very-high and most pitches week in and week out. Quick call should only be used in the early season to find out what’s important to them and only in late season when you add recruits. Don’t get lazy and quick call guys you’ve been after since the start, cause this is how you lose recruits. I know I used a powerhouse, but it’s only because I had no interest in using a team like BYU or some other mid major so I’m doubt what I’ve typed completely applies to them. Doing all this, I was able to pull 11 5-stars, 5 4-stars, and 4 3-stars (only to fill needs) DURING the season.
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Gooo eers
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How do I create a player in the off season of NCAA 09, somebody please help. Thanks
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tOSU- is the correct way
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